SECTIONS 7901-7912 - California Statutes

PUBLIC UTILITIES CODE

SECTION 7901-7912

7901. Telegraph or telephone corporations may construct lines of
telegraph or telephone lines along and upon any public road or
highway, along or across any of the waters or lands within this
State, and may erect poles, posts, piers, or abutments for supporting
the insulators, wires, and other necessary fixtures of their lines,
in such manner and at such points as not to incommode the public use
of the road or highway or interrupt the navigation of the waters.

7901.1. (a) It is the intent of the Legislature, consistent with
Section 7901, that municipalities shall have the right to exercise
reasonable control as to the time, place, and manner in which roads,
highways, and waterways are accessed.
(b) The control, to be reasonable, shall, at a minimum, be applied
to all entities in an equivalent manner.
(c) Nothing in this section shall add to or subtract from any
existing authority with respect to the imposition of fees by
municipalities.

7903. Every agent, operator, or employee of any telegraph or
telephone office, who in any way uses or appropriates any information
derived by him from any private message passing through his hands,
and addressed to any other person, or in any other manner acquired by
him by reason of his trust as such agent, operator, or employee, or
trades or speculates upon any such information so obtained, or in any
manner turns, or attempts to turn, the information so obtained to
his own account, profit, or advantage, is punishable by imprisonment
in the state prison, or by imprisonment in the county jail not
exceeding one year, or by fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars
($10,000), or by both such fine and imprisonment.

7904. Every agent, operator, or employee of any telegraph or
telephone office, who wilfully refuses or neglects to send any
message received at such office for transmission, or wilfully
postpones the transmission of the message out of its order, or
wilfully refuses or neglects to deliver any message received by
telegraph or telephone, is guilty of a misdemeanor. Nothing in this
section shall be construed to require any message to be received,
transmitted or delivered, unless the charges thereon have been paid
or tendered, nor to require the sending, receiving, or delivery of
any message counseling, aiding, abetting, or encouraging treason
against the Government of the United States or of this State, or
other resistance to the lawful authority, or any message calculated
to further any fraudulent plan or purpose, or to instigate or
encourage the perpetration of any unlawful act, or to facilitate the
escape of any criminal or person accused of crime.

7905. The Public Utilities Commission shall issue regulations
requiring every telephone corporation subject to its jurisdiction to
maintain complete records of all instances in which its employees
discover any device installed for the purpose of overhearing
communications over the lines of such corporation and all instances
in which such employees reasonably believe and report to the
corporation their belief that such device is installed or has been
installed but has since been removed.

7906. The Public Utilities Commission shall regularly make inquiry
of every telephone corporation under its jurisdiction to determine
whether or not such corporation is taking adequate steps to insure
the privacy of communications over such corporation's telephone
communication system.

7907. Notwithstanding Section 591, 631, or 632 of the Penal Code or
Section 7906 of this code, whenever the supervising law enforcement
official having jurisdiction has probable cause to believe that a
person is holding hostages and is committing a crime, or is
barricaded and is resisting apprehension through the use or
threatened use of force, such official may order a previously
designated telephone corporation security employee to arrange to cut,
reroute, or divert telephone lines for the purpose of preventing
telephone communication by such suspected person with any person
other than a peace officer or a person authorized by the peace
officer.
The telephone corporation shall designate a person as its security
employee and an alternate to provide all required assistance to law
enforcement officials to carry out the purposes of this section.
Good faith reliance on an order by a supervising law enforcement
official shall constitute a complete defense to any action brought
under this section.

7910. (a) Telephone corporations, holders of a state franchise
pursuant to Division 2.5 (commencing with Section 5800), and a video
provider, as defined in Section 53088.1 of the Government Code, shall
perform background checks of applicants for employment, according to
usual business practices.
(b) A background check equivalent to that performed by the
contracting telephone corporation, a holder of a state franchise
pursuant to Division 2.5 (commencing with Section 5800), and a video
provider, as defined in Section 53088.1 of the Government Code, shall
also be conducted on all of the following:
(1) Persons hired by a contracting entity under a personal
services contract.
(2) Independent contractors and their employees.
(3) Vendors and their employees.
(c) Independent contractors and vendors shall certify that they
have obtained the background checks required pursuant to subdivision
(b), and shall make the background checks available to the
contracting entity upon request.
(d) Except as otherwise provided by contract, the telephone
corporation, a holder of a state franchise pursuant to Division 2.5
(commencing with Section 5800), and a video provider, as defined in
Section 53088.1 of the Government Code, shall not be responsible for
administering the background checks and shall not assume the cost of
the background checks of individuals who are not applicants for
employment of the contracting entity.
(e) (1) An individual shall not, on behalf of a telephone
corporation, holder of a state franchise pursuant to Division 2.5
(commencing with Section 5800), or video provider, as defined in
Section 53088.1 of the Government Code, enter upon the premises of
any individual unless he or she has had the background check required
by subdivisions (a) and (b).
(2) Subdivision (a) applies to applicants for employment for
positions that would allow the applicant to have direct contact with
or access to the company's network or central office and would
require the applicant to perform activities that involve the
installation, service, or repair of the company's network or
equipment.
(3) Subdivision (b) applies to any person that has direct contact
with or access to the company's network or central office and
performs activities that involve the installation, service, or repair
of the company's network or equipment.
(f) This section does not apply to temporary workers performing
emergency functions to restore the network of a telephone corporation
to its normal state in the event of a natural disaster or an
emergency that threatens or results in the loss of service.
(g) The provisions of this section apply only to applicants for
employment who apply for employment on and after January 1, 2009, and
to contracts entered into on or after January 1, 2009.

7912. (a) A public utility employing more than 750 total employees
shall annually report to the commission all of the following:
(1) The number of customers served in California by the public
utility.
(2) The percentage of the public utility's total domestic customer
base that resides in California.
(3) The number of California residents employed by the public
utility, calculated on a full-time or full-time equivalent basis.
(4) The percentage of the public utility's total domestic
workforce, calculated on a full-time or full-time equivalent basis,
that resides in California.
(5) The capital investment in the public utility's tangible and
intangible plant which ordinarily have a service life of more than
one year, including plant used by the company or others in providing
public utility services, in California during the yearly reporting
period.
(6) The number of California residents employed by independent
contractors and consultants hired by the public utility, calculated
on a full-time or full-time equivalent basis, when the public utility
has obtained this information upon requesting it from the
independent contractor or consultant, and the public utility is not
contractually prohibited from disclosing the information to the
public. This subdivision is inapplicable to contractors and
consultants that are a public utility subject to the reporting
requirements of this section. This paragraph applies only to those
employees of an independent contractor or consultant that are
personally providing services to the public utility, and does not
apply to employees of an independent contractor or consultant not
personally performing services for the public utility.
(b) The commission shall annually report the information required
to be reported by public utilities pursuant to subdivision (a), to
the Assembly Committee on Utilities and Commerce and the Senate
Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications, or their successor
committees, and within a reasonable time thereafter, shall make the
information available to the public on its Internet Web site.